People live on top of it now, ever since the Francis Hotel was turned into apartments. There’s a chunk of the building that nobody can get into though, and it has been that way for a while. St. Paul’s lost stage.

Serving those who were turned away because of race and income, training generations of nurses, and now collapsing into the streets of St. Louis out of neglect. Now that raindrops freefall from the clouds above to the basements in the shadows without touching a floor, wall, bed or desk, it’s clear that this city lost an opportunity and a landmark.

Mother Nature refused to give up her gold in the San Juans to the men of Treasure Mountain without a fight. Now, after a century of hard rock mining in its steep gulches, she cannot let go of the long abandoned mines or its ghost towns.